White Collar Crime Convictions for November 2009
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during November 2009 the government reported 652 new white collar crime convictions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 0.5% over the previous month.
White Collar Crime
This report summarizes the government's recent efforts when it comes to combating white collar crime—the number of such cases, the investigative agencies involved, the laws cited, the busiest federal districts and the busiest federal judges.
See more...The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted for white collar crime-related offenses are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. (See Table 1)
When monthly 2009 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was up (15 percent). Convictions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are up 24.9 percent from levels reported in 2004.
The growth in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in white collar crime convictions is 9.5 percent instead of 24.9 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
The increase from the levels five years ago in white collar crime convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of white collar crime convictions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Within the broad category of white collar crime, cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
Case types within white collar crime are
• Federal Procurement Fraud
• Federal Program Fraud
• Tax Fraud
• Arson for Profit
• Other Insurance Fraud
• Financial Institution Fraud
• Bankruptcy Fraud
• Advance Fee Schemes
• Other Fraud Against Businesses
• Consumer Fraud
• Securities Fraud
• Commodities Fraud
• Other Investment Fraud
• Antitrust Violations - Other
• Computer Fraud
• Health Care Fraud
• Fraud Against Insurance Providers
• Intellectual Property Violations
• Insider Fraud Against Insurance Providers
• MEWA (Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangements) Fraud/MET
•
• Antitrust Violations - Airlines
• Antitrust Violations - Banking
• Antitrust Violations - Defense Procurement
• Antitrust Violations - Extraterritorial Application Of
• Antitrust Violations - Finance Markets, Other than Banking
• Telemarketing Fraud
• Corporate Fraud
• Identity Theft
• Aggravated Identity Theft
• Other White Collar Crime/Fraud
The largest number of convictions of these matters in November 2009 was for "Fraud-Financial Institution", accounting for 18.1 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Fraud-Identity Theft-Other" (17.6%), " Fraud-Federal Program" (10.7%), "Fraud-Other" (10.7%), "Fraud-Other Business" (8.1%), "Fraud-Identity Theft-Aggravated" (7.7%), "Fraud-Tax" (7.2%), "Fraud-Health Care" (6.1%), "Fraud-Consumer" (2.6%), "Fraud-Computer" (2.1%). See Figure 2.
The lead investigative agency for white collar crime convictions in November 2009 was FBI accounting for 24 percent of convictions. Other agencies with substantial numbers of white collar crime convictions were: DHS (20% ), Postal (15%), SecServ (13%), IRS (8%). See Figure 3.
White Collar Crime Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In November 2009, 94 defendants in white collar crime cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in November the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028 involving the "Aggravated identity theft". This was the lead charge for 95.7 percent of all magistrate convictions in November.
White Collar Crime Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In November 2009, 558 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during November there were an additional 0 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during November.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the convictions of white collar crime matters filed in U.S. District Court during November 2009.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 18 USC 1344 - Bank fraud 74 1 1 1 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 50 2 2 2 More 18 USC 1028 - Fraud and related activity - id documents 47 3 5 8 More 18 USC 1029 - Fraud and related activity - access devices 44 4 6 5 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 40 5 4 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 33 6 3 3 More 18 USC 641 - Public money, property or records 29 7 7 7 More 18 USC 1347 - Health Care Fraud 20 8 8 11 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 18 9 9 23 More 26 USC 7206 - Fraud and False statements 16 10 10 10 More
Table 2: Top charges for convictions
"Bank fraud" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Bank fraud" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was the 1 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1341. "Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1341 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was the 2 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 3rd was "Fraud and related activity - id documents" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028. "Fraud and related activity - id documents" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1028 was ranked 5 a year ago, while it was the 8 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions—up 28.7 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 26 U.S.C Section 7206 that involves " Fraud and False statements ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—538.1 percent—was registered for convictions under " Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 21.3 percent—was Bank fraud (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 26.4 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In November 2009 the Justice Department said the government obtained 224.1 white collar crime convictions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of white collar crime convictions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of convictions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 white collar crime convictions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Montana 1,267 10 1 56 50 More La, E 947 11 2 43 38 More Fla, S 922 50 3 1 2 More Maryland 900 42 4 15 20 More New Hamp 823 9 5 78 72 More Ark, E 767 10 6 36 62 More Wash, W 579 24 7 20 50 More N. Y., W 559 13 8 45 43 More Texas, E 505 14 9 18 17 More Mo, E 499 12 10 16 15 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Montana—with 1267 convictions as compared with 224.1 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during November 2009.
The Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans) ranked 2nd.
Southern District of Florida (Miami) is now ranking 3rd. The Southern District of Florida (Miami) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Maryland , now ranked 4th , and Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) at 10th In the same order, these districts ranked 15th and 16th one year ago and 20th and 15th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of white collar crime convictions compared to one year ago— 222.2 percent—was New Hampshire . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 165.2 percent—was Western District of Washington (Seattle).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of white collar crime convictions— 32.3 percent—was Eastern District of Texas (Tyler). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 16 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new white collar crime crime cases resulting in convictions of this type during November 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Motz, J. Frederick Maryland 15 1 More Marra, Kenneth A. Fla, S 10 2 More Blake, Catherine C. Maryland 9 3 More Titus, Roger W. Maryland 8 4 More Cohn, James I. Fla, S 7 5 More Molloy, Donald W. Montana 6 6 More Skretny, William M. N. Y., W 6 6 More Anderson, Joseph Fletcher Jr. S Car 6 6 More Jones, Richard A. Wash, W 6 6 More Lew, Ronald S. W. Cal, C 5 10 More Dimitrouleas, William P. Fla, S 5 10 More King, James Lawrence Fla, S 5 10 More Zloch, William J. Fla, S 5 10 More Shaw, Charles Alexander Mo, E 5 10 More Ward, T. John Texas, E 5 10 More
Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 13 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of white collar crime convictions per capita, while the remaining 2 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 15 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge J. Frederick Motz in the District of Maryland ranked 1st with 15 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
Judge Kenneth A. Marra in the Southern District of Florida (Miami) ranked 2nd with 10 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
Judge Catherine C. Blake in the District of Maryland ranked 3rd with 9 convicted in white collar crime convictions.
